Going going gone.

1. Pier 64 - Word came in via the "Rustbucket" (aka Pier 63) paddling group grapevine that Pier 64 is indeed no more. Goofyman drove past twice today - in the morning, it sounds like it still looked pretty much like it did on Sunday. He drove past later and it was gone.

A little more than a year ago, I was already saying this:

"Rounding the corner of the condemned old piershed at Pier 64 on Saturday, I found myself thinking of how familiar that building has become to me, and how strange it's going to be when the Hudson River Park Trust starts to work in our section and starts tearing the old stuff down. I'll miss the old ghost. From the water, there was something about it."

There was, too. It sheltered our embayment from the winds, it caught the light at sunset, when it's muted, weathered greens and blues and rusts would slowly go all shining orangey-gold along with the sun and the sky in the west, it brooded magnificently on dark & rainy days. It's going to take some getting used to having it be gone. Sadly, now, the end of a journey coming in from the north will now be marked by the glaringly garish video screen that advertises Chelsea Piers, instead of the dark & quiet bulk of the old pier.



Even sadder - I read that the coral in the Caribbean is...well, you can go read about it here.

Maybe I'm lucky I went when I did (I took the shot above last November).

Sorry a little gloomy today after yesterday's silliness (I didn't mention the last names of the kayakwomen in question - basically in writing a hasty email to Wenley and Derrick, I swapped the name "Wendy KILLORAN" for "Ginni CALLAHAN" for the woman who's circumnavigating NEWFOUNDLAND...not so silly after all, I guess). We're coming into what's always one of the worst weeks for the finance folks at the Really Big Children's Publishing House, where we simultaneously have to close the books on March & also produce the final budget for next year. We've already been warned not to make any plans for the 7th or 8th...not sure that we'll have to work both but we might.

I had the weirdest nightmare a few nights back, probably from the stress - dreamed that somebody I used to know put me in a situation that was so intolerable that I somehow tore myself in two trying to get away...so then there were two of me, and one of me was free, but the guy still had the other me, and I knew I couldn't leave without rescuing me first. Of course with the usual illogic of dreams, the scene shifted from somewhere at the barge to a very fancy restaurant, and as is usual in my infrequent dreams (actually I don't remember my dreams much but when I do it was usually a doozy), I wasn't able to ask anyone to help me save, uh, me...weirdest moment of the whole dream was when a waitress passed me and the bad guy, and then she passed me again because I was...yup, tailing me (and the bad guy), and I could see the complete confusion on her face that she realized something really weird was going on, but of course I couldn't tell her what was going on.

Will I be glad when budget hell is done & I can resume having a life? Oh my yes! And daylight savings time starts this weekend, yay, and that means after-work paddles get a little more interesting (somehow I don't mind finishing at twilight or even night, but starting & finishing in the dark just doesn't appeal to me much). Man, my pier 63 paddling friends (dose rat-bastards...) are all doing a "hooky paddle" tomorrow - 4 to 6...guess where I'll be? That's right, chained to my cubicle, slaving over a hot Excel workbook. No wonder I'm dreaming I have to rescue me from an unpleasant arrangement. Is that not a bizarre thing to dream, though?

Well, for all that, it is at least feeling like it's coming together better this year than last year. Last year we were one staff member down & our business manager had given notice that she was leaving immediately after budget season & that was kind of scary, lots of handing-off to do. Being at full staff this year, it feels a bit better. And the worst is over after our budget-due-to-corp date - deadlines may be stressful but I'm pretty good at working long hours as long as I know where the "finish line" is.

Hmm. I suppose what the ventilation session is leading up to is that things might get a little sparse around here over the next 2 weeks or so. I've got the next installment of the paddles & planes thing half done, will probably polish that off on Sunday (which I'm clinging to as a day when I don't have to be anywhere at anytime, what luxury!)...after that, eh, we shall see.